We just got back from our most recent trip to Anchor Point/Homer. We spent Monday night through Sunday morning at our cabin and were able to get out on the water 4 days. Each day was a fairly moderate load of 4 adults a full 62 gallons fuel and misc fishing gear, food, etc.
Tuesday we left the Homer boat harbor around 10 am. Since the motor was nearly broke in I put the original 3x14x23 prop on to see how that performed. This day was pretty much a cruiseing day to do some sightseeing and run over to Seldovia to see our friends there. The weather was nice, in the mid 50s, intermittent overcast, seas less than 3' most of the day. we put on about 80 miles this day going from Homer harbor to bear Cove at the head of Katchemak Bay. We saw gray whales near Bear Cove. We turned back when it started getting real shallow (less than 20 ft). We cruised Halibut Cove proper (not the lagoon) then into the townsite cove. We followed the shoreline back west to Gull Island. The various sea birds are really beginning to collect there now. We then took the inside route past Yukon Island, past Macdonald Spit and into Seldovia. Hung out there with some friends who are still building there home on the lagoon (pic below). After dinner there we made a stright shot back to the Homer Spit and boat harbor. You can see the spit on the chartplotter in one of the shots below. That prop is clearly too big. We couldn't get over 5200 rpm, we did about 80 miles this day and burned about almost a half tank of fuel.
Wed there were small craft advisories with winds 20 gusts to 30 seas to 6' so we didn't get out this day.
Thursday we launched from the harbor though we could see there were still some pretty big seas just outside the harbor on the east side of the spit. But we could see that once we got around the end of the spit the bay outside was reasonably calm, seas 3'. As we left the harbor it was pretty wild and wooly for a time. there were 4-6' seas and confused. I hadn't got the prop trimmed right yet and I didn't power up quick enough. We got bounced and thrown around pretty crazily for about 3-5minutes though it seemed longer. I had to head into it long enough to find a stretch calm enough to make a fast power turn. Then for the next little while we had some pretty big following seas pushing us around. So it was kind of a white knuckle ride for about 15 minutes until we got past the wind line. On the bright side I sure gained a lot of confidence it what this boat can handle, especially when you get the trim right. If I would have been stupid enough to have attempted that in my 20' Harvey Dory we would have been in great danger. Anyway so we headed out in search of halibut using some coordinates out past Seldovia that I got from Ken Dodson. It was little hard because my chartplotter was reading in decimals instead of minutes and I could find the right series of menus to change it but using the paper chart I think we got in the vicinity. Now it was time to anchor for the first in this boat. I was glad I had got the roof rails on because even in seas 3' I can see that there is no way I would try walking forward without them. Dropping anchor in approx 170' went smooth enough. We soaked herring and octopus for a couple hours and let a few little ones (under 10-12 lbs) go and kept one about 15 lbs. But it was getting rougher so we decided to try another area inside of Yukon Island. Now it was time to pull the anchor for the first time. This went relatively well except that I didn't get the bouy all the way down the chain to the anchor. when I got to the bouy I had about 30' of rode and the 20' of 3/8 chain and the 22 lb anchor hanging there. Pulling the rest in was a bitch. Lesson learned make sure you run until the bouy is plowing the water. Also have someone hold the the line as it runs back past the boat, they can feel when the chain runs through the bouy ring. We buzzed back to the lee side of Yukon and anchored in about 90'. We fortunately had stumbled onto a nice little hole because within a couple hours we had landed 2 more in the 25 lb range a 30 and a 40 pounder. We marked that spot on the plotter! We made our way back to the harbor in 3'- 4' seas with no problem. We traveled only about 36 miles this day. I had put on a 13.25x17 prop. There was a remarkable difference. You could run the rpms up, the motor ran smoother with far less hull vibration and was definitely more responsive though probably a little under pitched.
Friday out again about 10am. Seas 3' cool overcast and drizzly. We headed north from the spit and tried a place about 4 miles out in 90' pretty slow this day. We tried a variety of places in the vicinity during slack tide but only kept one about 25 lbs. Once the tide turned we decided to head in. Only put on about 18 miles.
Saturday out at 0930, Seas 3' cool and gray. Headed for an area due west of Anchor Point that I had fished in the past with good luck. We got about 3/4 of the way there and it was building the further we went. Seas 4' with an occasional 5 footer in the mix. Though we had no trouble traveling in it I wasn't looking forward to sitting in it and fishing so we turned back and followed the shelf until things calmed down a bit and tried to make use of the slack tide. As soon as we put the lines down we got a lot of bites but nothing would take the hook. We brought up a few littles and finally one about 15 lbs which we kept. The bite disappeared, the tide was turning and so we decided to make a run straight across the bay to the whole on the back side of Yukon. After about a 45 minute run through 4' seas we arrived to the calm of the lee side and fished for about an hour bringing in one 30 pounder. This is where my oil light came on and made me sweat. Not to self carry spare oil! But we quickly found that it was only the oil change warning. So we pulled anchor and headed in. Did about 60 miles this day.
All in all a very fun and successul trip. Gained a lot more confidence in our baot, learned several things about pulling hte anchor and now have a good idea of how I want to finish the cabin. Oh and what was the catch tally you ask. My wife Kath 3, son in law Andy 1, Daughter Sera 4. Me 0. Truth is though I hardly fished at all. I was busy doing all the rigging, baiting, untangling, releasing, gaffing, bonking and generally keeping things cleaned up etc, etc, etc. But it was fun just the same. I barely took any pictures. Our daughter and Andy took quite a few and I'll post them when we can get them from there camera to a cd since I don't have a cable for their sd card and they forgot theirs.
